Since 1999 the total number of service bays has increased slightly. The most important change has been the distribution of these service bays. Here are the winners and losers: Dealerships, general repair and Service stations have decreased bays by 49 and 57 percent respectively while independent specialists and domestic specialist have increased service bays by 22% and 42%. Tires stores have increased by 11%.

BMW expands recall to 1.6 million vehicles worldwide over fire risk

FRANKFURT, Germany – Automaker BMW says it is expanding a recall to cover 1.6 million vehicles worldwide due to possible fluid leaks that could result in a fire.
BMW said Tuesday that in some diesel vehicles, coolant could leak from the exhaust gas recirculation module, part of the emissions reduction system. The leaks could combine with soot at high temperatures and lead to a fire.
The Munich-based company had already decided to recall 480,000 vehicles in Asia and Europe after fires were reported in South Korea. No injuries were reported. Further examination led to an expansion of the maintenance action.
The recall covers some vehicles made between 2010 and 2017; a company statement said that customers with affected cars would be contacted. Some 54,700 vehicles are affected in the U.S and Canada.

"Volvo is dipping its toes into electric vehicle infrastructure with an investment in FreeWire, a manufacturer of mobile rapid charging systems for electric vehicles. The investment comes as Volvo ramps up its electrification effort.
Earlier this year, the Swedish automaker, who is now backed by China's Geely, announced that it aims for 50% of sales to be "fully electric" by 2025.
It's one of the most aggressive electrification plans from a legacy automaker.
Today, they announced their investment in the San Francisco-based company through their Volvo Cars Tech Fund earlier today."

Walmart announced a 2019 partnership with Advance Auto Parts to create a specialty auto parts store on Walmart.com.
The partnership will bring home delivery and same-day pickup in both Walmart and Advance stores.
The venture will sell common auto parts and accessories, including tires, lube and battery services, online and in its 2,500 Walmart Auto Care Centers nationwide.
Walmart said the deal will complement its current selection of auto parts and accessories, including tires, lube, and battery services, that are sold online and in its 2,500 Walmart Auto Care Centers nationwide.
Advanced Auto Parts Owns WorldPac

Walmart on Tuesday announced a 2019 partnership with Advance Auto Parts to create a specialty auto parts store on Walmart.com."This year, we've been incredibly focused on building our offering on Walmart.com to ensure we have the specialty assortment that our customers are looking for," said Phillip Oaks, vice president of retail merchandising at Walmart e-commerce. "This comprehensive partnership will enhance almost every aspect of the automotive customer shopping experience – from the product offering online to fulfillment capabilities."The partnership will also add new home delivery and same-day pickup for auto parts in both Walmart and Advance stores.Advance Auto Parts has 6,400 stores and 70,000 employees throughout the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Caribbean.Walmart has been acquiring several companies in the past few months to compete with other retail giants such as Amazon. It recently bought the lingerie company Bare Necessities. Earlier in October, it acquired Eloquii, a retailer that sells plus-sized clothes, for $100 million. It also announced a partnership with U.S. movie studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer to create content with its video-on-demand service Vudu. In September, Walmart Mexico bought food delivery company Cornershop for $225 million.Walmart said the deal will complement its current selection of auto parts and accessories, including tires, lube, and battery services, that are sold online and in its 2,500 Walmart Auto Care Centers nationwide.

Volvo opens its first U.S. factory with 150,000 a year capacity. 2018 sales growth year-to-date has been 30% in the U.S. and 14% globally.
Volvo will launch five pure electric cars in little over a year from now that will compete mostly with Tesla.
Volvo should debut its Polestar 2 pure electric car in Geneva in March 2019, a few months ahead of production start.
EV production will start in China, but move in stages to Sweden, Belgium and South Carolina over the following 1-2-3 years.

Good news for the auto repair industry. Car counts are finally returning to pre-recession levels. The 2007 recession and the cash for clunkers (remember that fiasco) drove car counts down for aftermarket repairers over the last 3 years. The bottom of the trough was 2017. The industry is now on an upswing.

Technician Wages On The Rise

Since 2015, technician wages have been on the rise. The average tech in 2015 was earning 17.03. In 2016 (latest figures available) the average technician is now at 18.50 per hour.

Events

Expos

2018 IRSS Training

The 15th annual Independent Repair Shop Summit was hosted by Ramac Industries on the weekend of Oct 6-7. A big shout out to over 100 of the best Volvo techs and shops who attended. We would also like to thank our great instructors who made this event a great learning experience. We look forward to more training seminars next year. Here are some of the attendees comments:

Feedback from the IRSS 2018

-----------------------------------------

Really enjoyed the weekend, learning about the new product
is what I miss from my years at the dealership. Having Jose giving his
real world experience as a technician at a dealership was very good information
as well.

Then to top it off was the food
and beer....top notch!

Very glad We made the effort to
attend!

Burton Snider

Snider Automotive

---------------------------

I would like to thank the entire Ramac team for an
outstanding experience over this past weekend. It is my
understanding that this is the first independent repair shop seminars anywhere
to have VIDA authorized training and Volvo North America aid in acquiring
instructors. In my experience, this level of support from Volvo has
never been extended to the in dependent repair facilities in the
past. I cannot imagine the time and dedication needed on your
behalf working with Volvo to have an olive branch like this extended to our
community. It makes me wonder if this could be the beginning of a
new relationship between Volvo and the independent repair community to better
satisfy our mutual customers and maintain a Volvo for life customer base.

The level of information in this year’s seminar has
surpassed all previous seminars. The ability to see SPA platform
VIDA interface live will be invaluable in the next year to year and a half when
we start receiving SPA and CMA vehicles for service. The
introduction to the next generation of CAN and FLEX RAY networking was
interesting. The in-depth VIDA training towards CSC diagnostics is
something no one will receive unless dealership trained and an area most
overlook without proper training. The navigation training to locate up to
date information and bulletins over conventional sources like All data will be
helpful. The information provided for the electric line of vehicles has
been an experience. With the power output capabilities of these cars, I
wouldn’t mind asking Volvo where the accessory connection is to power my house
in a power outage.

I am still digesting all the information provided. It
was an immense amount of information to be packed into a single
weekend. If you could extend my gratitude to both Jims and Jose for
an outstanding experience this year.

If I have any criticism, it will be to introduce an
intermediate Vida training course for p1, p2, p3 platforms and bring back an
introduction to can network course to compliment the intermediate
course.

Sincerely,

Michael Moniz

Village Garage

WESTPORT, MA

---------------------------

I attended the Volvo training at Ramac Industries & found
it to be the best one I have attended. I have been to 6 in years past . The
Vida information was & will be invaluable.

Thanks to Mac & crew & especially to Volvo
instructor group .

Neil Becker

President

Becker Automotive

DURHAM, NC

---------------------------

Great Volvo seminar, good instructors, information is
invaluable.

Hope you retain this format in future .

Jerry Thompson

FOREIGN AUTO SPECIALTIES

MINNEAPOLIS, MN

---------------------------

Just wanted to say again how informative last weekend was!

Thank everybody who worked on putting it together they did a
great job. I really like working with you all you take the guess work out of
buying

parts. I know that it is the highest quality if I get it
from RAMAC!

Charley Johnson

EXPERT AUTO CARE LLC

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK

---------------------------

We're already using some of the lessons from the
weekend.

Thanks again.

Mike Glasgow

GLASGOW AUTOMOTIVE SVC.

St. Paul, MN

---------------------------

I am writing because Joe asked me to write a review of my
experience at the VIDA part of the IRSS. I hope it will help to make each
seminar better.

Saturday, was an overview of VIDA with p3 and older and VIDA
SPA and CMA cars. VIDA being VIDA was glitch. The instructor was even confused.
I doubt that can be improved on at all. VIDA does what VIDA wants. The
instructor needed a little more structure to the class. The material was too
basic. Most of us had been through reading and erasing DTCs and versed in the
repair side of VIDA. We have gotten too used to the “silver bullets”. We as
technicians love them. My suggestion maybe is a transmission class, something
more specific and technical.

Sunday, was an overview of the new SPA hybrids. The
information here was good, but basic. I would say I learned the most in
this class about the new cars, features, the hybrid systems as well. Good stuff
to know.

Based on past IRSS, this last one was not the best; but
still worth attending for day 2.

Jake Leslie

J AND J AUTOMOTIVE

Chico, CA

---------------------------

Best Seminar ever, Volvo Instructor Jimmy Was Great, don't
Know How People Work On These New VOLVO's Without Any Kind Of Training.

Dave SCHNEIDER

Austin-VolTec

Austin, TX

---------------------------

Sorry for the lag. it has taken me through last week to get
back on track (took Monday off with the shop closed for the return drive to San
Diego), and I can now think straight...

I thought the presentation was great, and the fact that the
Vida program fought with the experts! The Vida program has been described
to me by several people in the past as a program that is constantly
looking for an excuse to shut down, and with my experience it appears exactly
that way!!! So, again it was good to see (for everyone) the pros
having a difficult time with it.

The food was great! Meeting Bill face to face for the
first time @ his house was a nice treat that would normally never happen with
other parts suppliers! I thought the presentation was well put together
as well.

The only take away (perhaps for others more than myself) was
following along with the Volvo instructors on day one, downstairs. Jim
rambled a little, but I thought it was good as some of the instruction was
personal. Meaning some of the items discussed was from a personal point
of view, and not so ridgid as a power point presentation with nothing but the
facts. I garnered a lot of notes from the get together and realized a lot
of other ways to use the Vida program compared to the way I had been using it.

Thanks for providing the lesson:

Michael Ranes

INDEPENDENT VOLVO SAAB

San Diego, CA

---------------------------

This was a great learning experience for me. The classes on
management and marketing really helped. Daniel was very impressive, I took a
lot back with me to try. I also didn't realize what all Garageiq could do. I
will be using it to its full extent. Thank you for putting everything on a
flash drive I have used it several times.

Maryann Savage

Office Manager

Tremaine's Volvo Service

Dayton, OH

---------------------------

Hiya, Mac!

Thanks for having the Volvo seminar- I learned a lot, it was
very helpful in so many ways- up-to-date technical info, meeting &
networking with other shop owners & techs. The only thing I would change-
perhaps start earlier on Sunday (5 or 6 am)- us eastern US folks have to catch
flights in Reno at noon or 1 pm, so we have to leave too early on Sunday.
Again, thanks for bringing together the US Volvo community.

Bill SEITER

Nordic Motors

Cincinnati, OH

---------------------------

I enjoyed coming out and it was a good adventure to take my
key team members on. We learned some things and feel it was worth it.

It is a difficult travel from our region to get there, so
I’m not sure we will make it each year, although we would like to. Do to the
multiple flights and time difference, it is a full day of travel to get home.
Since the event ends in the afternoon on Sunday, it is not possible to get back
to east coast without taking a red eye. I basically closed my shop on Monday
for travel. It would actually be easier for East coast customers to attend if
the event was on Friday and Saturday, and we could travel home on Sunday. It is
easier for us to close on a Friday instead of a busy Monday. But I understand
that would create a challenge for your business operations on Friday.

As for the Vida content, I’m not sure how valuable it really
was having Jim there with Vida. He was hard to follow jumping around and free
flowing the presentation. I think he would have been better following a
structured PowerPoint presentation. I feel like Jose and Mike could of
conducted a more beneficial class with real world content and experience even
without Vida. If you do have Vida again, I think people need to be able to
connect there laptops to the WiFi and have bandwidth to follow along. It would
be much easier to explore and follow while actually doing it, versus looking at
a not so clear projection screen.

For every 10 sets of AKEBONO brake pads you purchase between now and Nov 30, 2018, you will earn an AKEBONO wall clock. Just think how cool this clock will look in your waiting room.

TPMS Tool Promotion

Buy 16 Universal TPMS Sensors and get a free TPMS scan tool.

Black Friday Starts Earlier And Lasts Longer

Check out all the current promotions available. From AKEBONO clocks to Free TPMS tools. To top it all off we have a Black Friday Coupon worth $50 off your next $500 or more order.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Services

New Chat Feature

If you are like most of our partners, you need information and you need it now. We now have a live chat feature on our new website. Great for getting live stock checks, brands or fitment information.

New Website Just Launched

The new website allows you to decode VINs, check for open recalls, create your own personalized kits, night drop envelopes, reminder postcards, service label stickers, and much more.
It is extremely mobile friendly.

Tips

Shop Management

Check Out The RamacEZ Button

Are you tired of getting the wrong parts? Do you spend too much time looking up parts? There is a better way to go, check out our new EZ Button. Its your Virtual Parts Manager . With a single click you can have all the parts for any BMW, MINI, SAAB or VOLVO looked up for you. This includes dealer parts as well as non-stocked items.